Reverse genetics and cell wall biosynthesis

The fully sequenced genomes of Arabidopsis and rice contain genes that can be recognized as glycosyltransferases (the CAZy database is a good resource to look at this). However, we know that some glycosyltransferases are not easily recognized as such. We are interested in the biosynthesis of arabinoxylans and pectins. Currently our main approach to investigate cell wall biosynthesis comprise the following steps:

• Selection of promising candidate genes
• Identification of Arabidopsis homozygous knock-out mutants for selected genes
• Analysis of cell walls and enzyme activities in mutants
• Heterologous expression of enzymes
• Biochemical characterization of enzymes
• Subcellular localization using fluorescent tagged proteins
• Identification of interacting protein partners

The Marie Curie Research Training Network 'WALLNET' includes 10 European laboratories and is funded by the EU 2005-2009. The research aim is functional genomics of Arabidopsis cell wall biogenesis. The WallNet consortium will investigate the function of 50-100 glycosyltransferases and other wall-related enzymes.